Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?
by RyanRies on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @09:49AM
(#9333958)
I didn't know of the critique of K&R in LCTHW that got taken down. I'm surprised that the rabble-rousers weren't able to take it in context. When K&R was first authored, there were no "seasoned" C programmers from which to draw on for their experience in writing safe, secure C code!
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Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?
by billrobertson42 on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @11:31AM
(#9334741)
Yes and no. Perhaps when the first edition was published that was true, but the second edition was published 11 years later.
When the second edition was published in 1988, there were seasoned C programmers, but security wasn't nearly the issue it is today. Since there was no World Wide Web yet, most computer systems weren't exposed to a global network full of people who wanted to crack code for profit. There was no e-commerce, no on-line banking, etc.
Was the Morris Worm, which brought down a huge percentage of Unix Servers in 1988, the result of C?
In any case, there was definitely a network that was being used by a lot of people by 1988.
I think you're overestimating the impact of the Morris Worm - there weren't all that many servers to bring down.
The first commercial ISP in the U.S. was founded in 1989.[1] Until then, only a few people in universities and the tech and defense industries had access to the internet. According to this chart[2], the number of internet hosts in 1992 is barely distinguishable from zero on today's scale.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider#Hist...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_internet_hosts....
